LINKSYS DELIGHTS VELOP USERS WITH NEW APP FEATURES TO ENHANCE THE WHOLE HOME WI-FI EXPERIENCE
Linksys®, a leader in networking solutions for the home and business and the first to ship 100 million routers, leads the Whole Home Wi-Fi market with about 90 percent market share in the Middle East, according to GFK reports.
With the recent launch of Velop™, its premier Whole Home Wi-Fi product, and the addition of new app features, Linksys has accelerated the consumer adoption of Whole Home Wi-Fi Mesh Systems Middle East, contributing to the region’s overall digitization agenda. According to research conducted by Linksys, Whole Home Wi-Fi Modular Mesh systems are set to grow 130 percent year on year and USD200 Million Dollars by 2018.
Linksys continues to invest heavily in the Middle East and in 2017 the company plans to see the addition of new partners, focused engagement with the service provider and advancement in the renowned Linksys Channel Partner Program.
“The Middle East continues to be a key market to Linksys, and we are proud to hold a leadership position in the premium networking space. With Velop, we will accelerate the adoption of Whole Home Wi-Fi Mesh Systems to enhance connected families’ networking experience. Velop delivers the ultimate Wi-Fi experience with easy deployment, coverage throughout the entire home, and performance at the edge of the network, allowing for more smart devices to be connected to the network,” said Amanullah Khan, Managing Director, Linksys, Middle East, Turkey & Africa.
Linksys continues to delight Velop users with two new added new features to its Linksys App. Linksys added Bridge Mode for Velop™ and parental control scheduler to Velop and all Linksys App-Enabled Routers (formally known as Linksys Smart Wi-Fi Routers) from its Max-Stream™ and WRT™ product lines.
“These two new App features have been among those most requested by our customers,” said Dan Albertson, senior product manager for Linksys software. “Many Velop customers need the ability to configure Velop in Bridge Mode to allow them to keep their existing router or gateway from their service provider in place for other services such as voice or IPTV while leveraging Velop’s whole-home Wi-Fi coverage and performance. Parental controls scheduling has been a feature in the Linksys browser-based interface. Still, our users have told us they need the flexibility to manage internet access schedules for their children’s’ devices from the Linksys App. These are just two features among many we’ll be rolling out to the Linksys App in the coming months.”
Bridge Mode for VelopMany consumers using Internet Service Provider (ISP) issued hardware (gateways are known as consumer premises equipment (CPE) devices or a Modem + Wi-Fi Router) cannot remove or replace as the hardware enables other services such as voice or IPTV. With Velop configured in Bridge Mode and connected to the gateway, wireless devices connected to the ISP gateway network and wireless devices connected to the Velop mesh Wi-Fi network will communicate with each other and eliminate issues, such as Double NAT. For example, if there is a printer on the ISP gateway network and a computer on the Velop network, the computer will access the printer to print. To enable Bridge Mode, consumers can go into the Linksys App and change the bridge’s connection edge.
Other features that will continue to work by enabling Bridge Mode:
Dynamic Tri-Band selection. Linksys is unique to offer the only true flexible mesh solution that doesn’t dedicate a single, static band to backhaul. Velop dynamically selects any of the three bands (one 2.4 GHz or two of the 5GHz bands) that provide the best connection for the client. This helps give users 100% of their Internet speed to the network’s edge for better overall performance. *
One guest network. The guest network will work on all the nodes providing better range and performance for the home’s guest network.
Auto firmware updates. Automatic firmware updates provide consumers automatic updates of new firmware so they don’t have to manually update their routers every time a new firmware is issued. This ensures customers have the latest fixes to bugs and access to new features.
Parental Controls Scheduler for Linksys App-Enabled Routers
The parental controls scheduler feature is now available in the Linksys App for Linksys Velop, Max-Stream, WRT, and EA series routers. Parental controls scheduling enables a parent to set and manage a day of the week/hour-by-hour schedule to block a child’s device from internet usage. Bringing this feature to the Linksys App provides parents the flexibility to manage internet access from their mobile device’s convenience.
Bridge Mode is available today with a combination of a Velop firmware update and today’s update of the Linksys app. The Parental Controls scheduling feature requires only the app update.
Velop and all Linksys App-Enabled router users have the benefit of Automatic Firmware Updates. If users choose to disable Automatic Firmware Updates, the new firmware can be downloaded and installed manually. Check the Linksys support page for more details. Users can visit the Linksys support site to learn more about Automatic Firmware updates.
